Compact personal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) can take a variety of forms. They generally must be carried and launched by hand, manually operated and charged with limited power and range and are often stored in portable containers. This makes them inconvenient for rapid launching, long range travel, autonomous operation, docking, charging and storage. For many applications in which UAVs can be useful assistants such as in urban settings for monitoring personal security, traffic, law enforcement, package delivery, media broadcasting and entertainment such as filming and sporting events and remote settings such as hiking, camping, emergency medical and military applications, the users thereof need to keep their hands free for other applications.